Paying the Price

 Paying the Price

All that convenient virtual learning is coming at a steep price.  Sure it’s convenient and a cheap and easy filler but now the piper must be paid.

Virtual learning has left kids and their families with the sense that school is a great place to stop by if you have the time.   Long after the end of COVID, school attendance rates have not begun to get back to where they were. 

Lots of excuses about why kids are not back in school.   But one thing is sure.   Math and reading scores are not nearly where they were five years ago.  On average reading scores are about a half year behind what they were in 2019.  BUT the situation is much worse for some states.  Generally, the states with the greatest use of virtual teaching and closing for COVID have lost the most and haven’t recovered.

States that voted Republican tended to lose the least and states that voted Democratic tended to lose the most.  That's because Republican led states used less virtual learning and were not quick to close schools.    Maryland lost a full year in math achievement.   This isn’t a full year below grade level; this is a full year BELOW what the scores were in 2019 which were already low.   Reading loss was almost as bad.

Lower socio-economic students have lost the most.    Some of these high school students were not in school, so the grabbed low paying jobs which were high paying for a teenager.  They haven’t given those jobs up.  Kids are staying home from school for family vacations, babysitting younger sibs and "just because".   Attending school in person has lost it priority.

You might think school districts have learned something from these data; but they haven’t.   One of the latest go to’s for snowy days is to switch kids to virtual learning.   They tune in on their tablet devices and tune out on learning.   From the district’s perspective these days count as school days and do not need to be made up.   From the student’s perspective, we are learning that the learning is never made up.  After all, when a nice pile of snow beckons a boring slide show is no competition.   Who cares if there is a price to pay, just not yet.

 

  

The new sheriff doesn’t give a damn.

 

There is a 10 year old boy in Prince George’s County who still has not been in school this school year.   It’s déjà vu all over again.   Prior to the Education of All Handicapped Children’s act (EHA) in 1975 and  recreated as Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA), principals routinely told parents of children with disabilities that the school did not have a program for them.  The law changed all that, or did it?  Because that is exactly what principals have told this family about their son.   The issue at hand is that Omari uses a wheelchair for mobility.   The schools have just said that they cannot accommodate the wheelchair.   Oh, but the Americans with Disabilities Act say that they are required to do that. In fact, EVERY year Prince George's County Public Schools has certified they are in compliance. So how can so many eleme Laws are great only when enforced.

The US Dept of Education should be enforcing IDEA.   The Trump administration is the new sheriff in town and really they do NOT care.  The staff of the Department has been decimated and those folks who are left are not about to make waves.  So far in spite of the pressure from advocates, Omari is not in school.

People worry that if the Department of Education is totally disbanded as Trump wants to happen, the money for children with disabilities will disappear.

The money will probably be distributed by the Department of Justice since it is guaranteed by IDEA and acts of Congress.   The money is the least of it.   Maryland gets about 5% of its funds for kids with disabilities from the feds.   The real issue is the USOE’s hammer to make sure that states enforce the requirements of IDEA and that the states respond appropriately to families who appeal to the State Department of Education for redress when the local system is failing to meet its responsibility.  Several years ago Maryland was cited for failure to adequately address family appeals.   What will happen if there is no pressure from the feds to keep Maryland in line?   The record is not stellar.   

We are hearing a great deal about the loss of federal dollars in all manner of places.   It’s not all about money.   Oversight is critical.

And, as Rhett Butler said, “frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn”.

And you thought he was a Democrat?

 And you thought he was a Democrat?

 

As the Governor of Maryland begins to unveil his cost cutting budget to come up with about 3B in savings, it’s interesting to see on whose backs the cuts are being made.

First there is the move to cover his tracks.   In the state of Maryland there is a law that requires every Governor to put enough money into the budget for basic state aide that reflects the previous year's amount PLUS an additional contribution equal to the increase in the cost of living.   This additional amount is called the Maintenance of Effort.   As a result of this requirement, EVERY Governor gets to say, “I put more money in the budget for education than any other governor before me”.  And yep this Governor did, just as every governor has done since the law went into effect.

The other thing the Governor did was reduce the per pupil basic aide by $162, bringing the aide down to the required Maintenance of Effort.   This reduction will cost local school systems millions of dollars when the amount is multiplied by the number of kids in the school system.   For Baltimore County that's about 18M.  For Anne Arundel, it's about 14M.  Nothing to sneeze at.

Secondly, in addition to basic state aid, the State contributes what is known as “excess cost” toward the cost of the State’s contribution to non-public school placement.  Children are placed in approved non-public schools when the local system acknowledges it cannot appropriately serve that child.  The formula is very complicated.   Presently, the State pays 70% of this excess cost.   The Governor is recommending that be reduced to 60%.   At the present time, depending on what a school district spends on a plain student’s education, some school systems pay NO county funds for a non-public placement and others pay a great deal less than the published tuition.  (Betcha you didn’t know that!)

The Governor is also cutting funds for the Developmental Disabilities Administration (DDA).   DDA supports adults with disabilities.   It does this by providing day placements in programs, providing funds for families to keep their adult children with disabilities at home, and by paying aides to care for adults with disabilities.   That’s hard work.   The positions don’t pay much and are difficult to fill.  There is a long waiting list for people who are approved for service to actually get that service.   Sometimes years pass between qualifying for service and actually receiving that service.

The Governor is doing worse than not providing a cost of living increase, he is CUTTING service for a program where there is already a long waiting list AND when it is already difficult to find staff.   Ultimately, this is a dumb way to save money because in the short run the DDA support funds keep adults out of more expensive services.   The Governor is cutting 200 MILLION dollars from an agency that was already short staffed and with a long waiting list.

Then there is Mr. Trump.   He has said all along that he plans to do away with the federal Department of Education (DOE).   So why does that matter?   Not so much and a great deal!   All money for children with disabilities flows through the DOE.   Most of that money comes from the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA).  The federal government has NEVER supported IDEA to the extent the law provides- think 40% in the law and about 5% in reality.  If DOE were to go away, the money would probably come through another government agency.  But DOE is also a watchdog agency to make sure that the various states and local school systems obey the requirements of the law.   Without DOE there would be no one to do that.

We all had some early warning signs about Mr. Trump but who would have guessed what Governor Moore is doing.   And we thought he was a Democrat.

 Don’t take it for granted.

 

It’s been 50 years since the US Congress decided that every child, including those with disabilities, were entitled to a free and appropriate education.   When President Gerald Ford signed the bill into law, he made a point of saying he was signing the bill because of the political pressure but he was sure, the goal of the bill would never happen.

Here we are fifty years later, and the goal of the law has happened.   In fact, the original Education of all Handicapped Children Act (EHA) has been amended several times to expand the entitled services and the name has morphed into Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

Besides the instructional program, children with disabilities are supposed to be provided occupational and physical therapy, speech therapy, family counseling, transition services to assist in the move to jobs or college.   Transportation to the services the child needs is also guaranteed.  In fact, a school district can say it doesn’t have enough teachers for art or even science so the students won’t get those services.   But if the child has a disability, he or she is in a special protected class and must receive those services regardless of the financial condition of the school district.

Does all that happen as required by law.   Absolutely not!   School systems don’t have enough OT’s so kids don’t get OT.   They don’t have enough speech therapists so ditto on speech.   The law requires the service if the student needs it.  So the work around is, the school systems just says the child doesn’t need the service and if the child doesn’t need the service there can be no consequence to the school system not providing the service.

Law for children with disabilities has morphed into a whole new class of legal expertise.   Families that can, spend a great deal of money hiring advocates and special lawyers to get their children what the law has required for half a century.

If children aren’t getting services when the law requires it, think what might happen if the laws were changed.  Be vigilant, don’t take what you have for granted.  Someone may be waiting to take it away.